Beacon Lesson Plan Library

Chasing Peter's Wolf

Sharon Hardy

Description

Students listen to Prokoviev's Peter and the Wolf, relate the story to the music and identify instruments and their representative characters. Students learn that music communicates events and images that help the listener to better understand a story.

Objectives

The student knows the general cultural and/or historical settings of various types of music (e.g., songs related to American celebrations and daily life).

The student understands how music can communicate ideas suggesting events, feelings, moods, or images.

Materials

-Cd or tape player
- VCR and TV
- CD or tape of Peter and the Wolf
- Video of Peter and the Wolf - there are several good ones available -Recommend - EAV Version available from Educational Audio Visual, Inc. Pleasantville, NY
- Book with the story of Peter and the Wolf - it is not necessary, but nice to have - you can tell the story yourself
-Pictures of the instruments that represent the characters
- If possible - real instruments to use for demonstration purposes
- Pictures of the characters - you may have to -draw- these yourself
- Copies of stick puppets to make characters(Optional)
-Music and You, Teacher's Copying Masters, Grade 1, Macmillan Publishing Co. 1988
-Scissors,crayons, tape, craft sticks

Preparations

1.Set up CD &/or tape player.
2. Set up VCR/TV
3. Have pictures of instruments and characters available.
4. Have tapes and or CDs available.
5. Set out copies of finger puppets, crayons, scissors, craft sticks and tape (optional activity).
6. Set out storybook -if using one.
7. If using -real- instruments for demo-have out of cases, ready to show &/or play.

Procedures

1. As students enter the classroom have the music from Peter and the Wolf playing,
2. Tell students today they will hear and watch the story of Peter and the Wolf.
3. Introduce the characters in the story: Peter, grandfather, cat, duck, bird, wolf, hunters.
4. Read or tell the story.
5. Tell students a composer named Prokoviev set the story to music.
6. Explain each character is represented by an instrument playing a melody.
7. Show pictures of the characters and the instruments while the melody is played. If individual recordings are not available, play the tune on the piano or representative instrument.
8. Watch the story (VCR) with musical background.
9. After watching and listening, review characters and their melodies as well as the story.
10. If time remains, or on another day as a follow-up review, have students make finger puppets which represent the characters.
11. Please note - This lesson addresses the following portions of the noted standards: The student will identify upon hearing familiar instruments and the student understands how music can communicate ideas suggesting events.....or images.
12. Ask students to match the provided pictures of the instruments with their representative character. The pictures will be posted on the board in the front of the room.
13. The students are formatively assessed as they do this ( see Assessment section). On another day the students can be divided into teams and asked to match the cards (kind of like a Spelling Bee). During all parts of the assessment procedure, corrective feedback is offered.

Assessments

The assessment is a formative one and addresses these sections of the standards: The student will identify upon hearing familiar instruments...The student understands how music can communicate ideas suggesting events....or images.
The teacher will observe as students match pictures of the instruments with the character they represent. The student should be able to correctly match 4 of the 7 characters with their representative instruments. This can be accomplished using the teacher provided lesson pictures &/ instruments or the student-made stick puppets (optional).

Extensions

On another day the students can use their stick puppets (or a teacher-made set) to reinact the story of Peter and the Wolf. This acts as a great review!